MONTREAL TERMINAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17436, 7 April 1931, Page 12

MONTREAL TERMINAL

CN.It. £10,000,000 SCHEME WHOLE BLOCKS LE v BLEED MONTREAL, Feb. £O. The £10,000,000 Canadian National terminal project in Montreal is now well under way. Jt is a big programme, this five-year task of giving to the railway system in Montreal facilities which will lie adequate for the needs of a growing metropolis. l'luns for it had been studied for years before they were brought before Parliament, where they were approved. The various methods of entering the city and traversing the densely populated areas were closely considered and a plan of elevated entrance, as against subways, was chosen from an engineering viewpoint. 'l'he completion of the terminals will remove many dangerous grade crossings; will provide for electrification of all passenger train movements in the city limits, and will provide freight, express and passenger terminals in keeping with tho needs of both local and long-distance traffic. Completion of the terminal facilities will finally co-ordinate facilities on the Island of Montreal, on which area dwell almost one-tenth of the entire population of Canada, and in addition to providing adequate freighthandling facilities, it will bring all Canadian lines into one terminal in the heart of the shopping and theatre district of Montreal. The project is an immense one, requiring the excavation of millions of cubic yards of earth from the central passenger terminal site, where now a numher of power shovels are at work. In preparation for this, whole blocks of buildings were razed, for the viaduct entrance to this station area cuts a wide swath through the lower business section of the city. Trains entering the city from north and west will reach the -•tation through a tunnel beneath' Mount Royal, while those from United States points and east of Montreal will enter the city via Victoria bridge, spanning the St. Lawrence River, and from the city end of that bridge will traverse the litv by means of the main viaduct now under construction. The plans also include a bolt line encircling the city, which will provide rail way service reuuircd for the develop merit of industries and for the convenience of residents in the north and east end of Montreal. Beside (he central passenger terminal. which will s'imd near the present tunnel terminal, there will eventually, it is nnticipntp.fi. arise office buildings, and other structures, erected on (he "aerial rights" over the depressed station trackage, for the plans include mnkino- this onnce over the track's available for huilding. as has teen done in the case of other large termini.